Gender: Female Occupation: Domestic Servant (scullery maid) for an aristocratic family (Duc Lavigne) in Versailles Social Class: Third estate Financial situation: Her family is extremely poor. Opportunities to work are scarce, so she took the first job she could find. She gains money but keeps very little for herself and sends the majority back to support her family. The family she serves is very well off so she is provided with food, water, and basic needs. She is saving slowly for college, a little at a time. Appearance: Short, curly, brown hair. Her usually outfit is the work dress with the same design with all the other servants in the house. Large, doe-like, brown eyes and a lopsided smile that shines through the fatigue her face shows. She is quite short, around 4 and a half feet tall.
Location (Map of France, Map of ParisMust be in the Paris region. Her family lives in Montparnasse, but she works in Versailles.. Habitual locations: (where are you found most of the time?) Lives with the family she serves in Versailles. She is around the house for most of her days. It is a very large house, and home to the aristocratic family of 5. The mistress, master, and their three children, who are still toddlers and very young. Daily routine: (typical day for you) She wakes up early and goes down to the kitchen immediately to start cleaning vegetables and scaling fish. As the day goes on, the other servants of a higher ranking and age than her give her order on what to do. Usually, she cleans and scrubs pots, heats water, empties and cleans the chamber pots, and dusts the floors. After the long day is over, she returns to the domestic servant quarters and with much difficulty reads (or looks at pictures) of a book that she managed to buy with her small amount of saved up money. Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits: She is able to smile at the worst times. She has an optimistic mindset and is very selfless. She tries her best to give money to her family. She is very eager to learn for her young age. She dreams of college, even though all the other servants tell her that it would be difficult. She is willing to do anything to pursue this dream, and is determined to protect and take care of those close to her. She is very young, but poverty has forced her to mature quickly. Past/individual-family history: She is the only one other than her father who is able to earn money, so she moved to Versailles to support her family. Her mother is very ill, and her father faces many troubles trying to grow his crops. Her mother has always been unhealthy, and after the birth of four children, her body became very fragile.
Family: (spouse? siblings?...) She has a father (Nicolas Marcoux), a mother (Madeleine Marcoux), and 3 younger sisters: Josephine Marcoux (age 7), Isabelle Marcoux (age 4), Marie-Elise (age 2)
Social relations with your own and other classes (people you deal with or know about in the class, AND your opinions and feelings about them): Her mistress doesn't treat her servants very well, so she does not have much respect for the family she serves. However, in a time of need, there was a child from an aristocratic family that helped her, but that child remains as just a memory. She does not discriminate based on the social classes as a whole, but on individual people and their actions. Religion: Believes in the existence of God, but does not have much other knowledge. Education: Received elementary education but not much else. However, she is eager to learn and does everything she can to learn. She looks a newspapers, signs, and anything else with letters. She can read and write at a moderate level now.
Languages you speak: French Main privileges and/or hardships: She has a place to live in and has basic needs. She is able to read and purchase whatever she wants. She has a certain level of freedom. However, she has to constantly work in a tiring manner. She is the lowest rank of a servant in the house, so the other servants order her around and yell at her. She also does not earn a lot of money, and has to constantly struggle to get more money.
Portrait: (find one online and paste it in)
Welcome to the National Museum of History!
New Life in America
Source #1 Interview of my grandma (original answer done in Korean; this is a translated version)
1. What was the turning point in your life? My immigration to America was the turning point.
2. Can you describe your life in Korea before you immigrated? Life was hard because my husband’s business failed. He used to work at the American military base, but later he tried to start his own business. However, it didn’t work out. We had four kids and it was hard to find a way to educate them well.
3. What was the deciding factor that made you immigrate to America? We went because we got invited to go to America by my husband’s sister, who was already an American citizen.
4. Was America all that you expected? It was better than I expected. There was a lot of food to give the kids and they seemed to adapt well.
5. What were the difficulties in immigration? In America, there was too much freedom given to children, so I was afraid that the kids would choose the wrong path. My husband and I both had to work, so we were fearful that if given the opportunity, the kids could easily make a bad decision without parental supervision and lack of cultural knowledge.
6. How did you settle in? We worked. The kind of work that was available for people with language barriers like us didn’t pay very well. So, my husband worked two jobs, one on the weekend and one on the weekdays. I too also had to look for a job and found one in a local restaurant.
7. Do you ever regret going to America? No, not to this day, I have never regretted going to America.
Brief Description of Source: This particular source is an interview of my grandma. She is the one who went through the immigration and is here to tell about it. Therefore, I deduced that she would be the best person to interview with the most information and unique opinions.
Source Type: An interview can differ on the type depending on who I interviewed. In this case, however, I interviewed my grandmother, so it is a primary source. She took part in the historical event, and the answers came directly from her, with no analyzation or tweaking. It was translated, but the meanings are all the same, so it is a primary source.
Short explanation of the source’s significance to the event: This interview of my grandma shows her perspective on the immigration and all of her true opinions and reflections. Through this, we can get the whole story from her point of view. However, we cannot assume anything, but prove things using the other sources.
Source #2
Inbom Choi, Korean Diaspora in the Making: Its Current Status and Impact on the Korean Economy, PDF
Brief Description of Source: As a detective, I decided that I also needed a source that would give information on the general topic of immigration itself. This is an article describing the Korean Diaspora. Written by Inbom Choi, it is on the subject of Korean immigration. It explains that after the war ended in 1945, many Koreans were in Japan and China. However, in the 1960's, they started immigrating to the America for better opportunities for business and economy. Also, with some prior knowledge of this document, I know that in 1965, there was a change in the immigration laws, so more people went. I also know that people went with reasons of push and pull. Therefore, I think most Koreans were pulled into America in hopes of better economic situations, as stated in the last paragraph.
Source Type: The type of source is a secondary source because it is not specific to my grandmother, but it is a piece of writing done after much analyzation and study of the topic of immigration itself. It is a documentary and a third person with no personal connection with our family was the author.
Short explanation of the source's significance to the event: From this article, I can understand the concept and background of my grandma's time and comprehend her reasons and actions. For example, she immigrated in 1976. More Koreans started to immigrate in the 1960's, so I know that what she did was quite normal under the circumstances and that she just did what she needed to do. Part of the reason why she moved could be because everyone else was also immigrating or that she heard good stories from America.
Source #3
Brief Description of Source: This is a photograph of my grandma's life in Korea. One could assume that the person in the picture is my grandma, but some extra inquiring proved that it was actually her sister in the picture. However, it is my mom on her back and my aunts on the ground. Therefore, this is an accurate description of their lifestyle in Korea before they immigrated. This was taken near their old house in Daegu, Korea.
Source Type: The photograph was always in our house, and the sole photograph that our family has of my mom's childhood. Therefore, this is the only relic from that time period in our family. Therefore, this artifact of my grandma's life is a primary source because although it is not of her it is her possession and her precious memory. This is the picture that I needed as a detective to learn what her lifestyle was like in Korea.
Short explanation of the source's significance to the event: The photograph is significant because it shows their life in Korea before the immigration. Although she wasn't directly in the picture, it shows her family and the atmosphere that they lived in. From this we can see part of the reasons that they immigrated. The number of children she had and the fact that they are in the countryside was part of the reason of why they immigrated in the first place.
Source #4
Brief Description of Source: This source is a picture of my grandma's driver's license in America. As a detective, I wanted to obtain an artifact from each stage of her life, so I looked for something that she had and used in America. This was in her possession and kept with her.
Source Type: As this was in my grandma's possession when I obtained it for this project, this is definitely a primary source. It was a result of her life and her immigration to America. This is an artifact. It was her's during this time period that I am studying right now.
Short explanation of the source’s significance to the event: I picked all of these sources for specific reasons. The driver's license is significant to my grandma's immigration because it shows what she did in America after the immigration. The immigration process does not end with moving to America, but the life afterwards. The driver's license shows that she has been living in America and has everything an American citizen would have. Also, it shows that she settled down in Virginia, which is probably where her sister-in-law lived.
Written recount of the event with direct reference to all of the sources: In 1976, my grandma and her family immigrated to America. In Korea, as said in her interview, they were struggling to get by with a failed business. But I cannot trust just one source. Therefore, I looked at the other sources, and the photograph also supports that fact because judging from the setting, it seems to be in a countryside, and they don't seem to be a wealthy family. Also, trying to educate four kids well was difficult for her, as stated by my grandma in the interview. Therefore, she was invited by her husband's sister to come move to Virginia with her. From this, I as an interpreter, infer that my grandma would not have actually immigrated if her sister-in-law did not invite their family. Without an invitation, it would have been very hard to find a good place with no connection at all. I also infer that her immigration at that time was no accident. Everything was set up perfectly. She was in a time period where many Koreans immigrated as said in the secondary source article and their business in Korea was declining, so she got the invitation at the perfect time. While its true that most Koreans probably immigrated because of a pull factor for a better economy, I choose a different factor. I choose to believe that my grandma immigrated more because of push than because of pull. She was not drawn to America, but pushed from Korea because of the failed business. The invitation came, and she left because this was a better option that staying in Korea. Therefore, my grandma and her family of four young children immigrated to America. She said in the interview that the life was better than she expected and that she did not regret going to America at all. I, as a judge, choose to believe that she was telling the truth because of the length of her time spent there as a resident. Her driver's license is from 2008. From the data, we can interpret that she stayed in America for at least 32 years and raised her children and her grandchildren there. If she didn't believe that it was a good place to live, she would not have allowed her children to raise her grandchildren in America. I chose this event because this is the complete turning point of our family history. But how does this event affect me and my present? In America, her whole family became American citizens, and this immigration completely changed the family nationality from pure Koreans to a Korean-American family. My grandma's decision to immigrate made me who I am. I was born in America, and was raised most of my life there. That is where my language, culture, and traditions came from originally. I am not a single-cultural girl, but a multi-cultured person who has experienced many things in America because of my grandmother's decision.The immigration made me who I am and will continue to sculpt my family history.
Character Creation
Name: Marguerite MarcouxAge: 12 years old
Gender: Female
Occupation: Domestic Servant (scullery maid) for an aristocratic family (Duc Lavigne) in Versailles
Social Class: Third estate
Financial situation: Her family is extremely poor. Opportunities to work are scarce, so she took the first job she could find. She gains money but keeps very little for herself and sends the majority back to support her family. The family she serves is very well off so she is provided with food, water, and basic needs. She is saving slowly for college, a little at a time.
Appearance: Short, curly, brown hair. Her usually outfit is the work dress with the same design with all the other servants in the house. Large, doe-like, brown eyes and a lopsided smile that shines through the fatigue her face shows. She is quite short, around 4 and a half feet tall.
Location (Map of France, Map of Paris Must be in the Paris region. Her family lives in Montparnasse, but she works in Versailles..
Habitual locations: (where are you found most of the time?) Lives with the family she serves in Versailles. She is around the house for most of her days. It is a very large house, and home to the aristocratic family of 5. The mistress, master, and their three children, who are still toddlers and very young.
Daily routine: (typical day for you) She wakes up early and goes down to the kitchen immediately to start cleaning vegetables and scaling fish. As the day goes on, the other servants of a higher ranking and age than her give her order on what to do. Usually, she cleans and scrubs pots, heats water, empties and cleans the chamber pots, and dusts the floors. After the long day is over, she returns to the domestic servant quarters and with much difficulty reads (or looks at pictures) of a book that she managed to buy with her small amount of saved up money.
Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits: She is able to smile at the worst times. She has an optimistic mindset and is very selfless. She tries her best to give money to her family. She is very eager to learn for her young age. She dreams of college, even though all the other servants tell her that it would be difficult. She is willing to do anything to pursue this dream, and is determined to protect and take care of those close to her. She is very young, but poverty has forced her to mature quickly.
Past/individual-family history: She is the only one other than her father who is able to earn money, so she moved to Versailles to support her family. Her mother is very ill, and her father faces many troubles trying to grow his crops. Her mother has always been unhealthy, and after the birth of four children, her body became very fragile.
Family: (spouse? siblings?...) She has a father (Nicolas Marcoux), a mother (Madeleine Marcoux), and 3 younger sisters: Josephine Marcoux (age 7), Isabelle Marcoux (age 4), Marie-Elise (age 2)
Social relations with your own and other classes (people you deal with or know about in the class, AND your opinions and feelings about them): Her mistress doesn't treat her servants very well, so she does not have much respect for the family she serves. However, in a time of need, there was a child from an aristocratic family that helped her, but that child remains as just a memory. She does not discriminate based on the social classes as a whole, but on individual people and their actions.
Religion: Believes in the existence of God, but does not have much other knowledge.
Education: Received elementary education but not much else. However, she is eager to learn and does everything she can to learn. She looks a newspapers, signs, and anything else with letters. She can read and write at a moderate level now.
Languages you speak: French
Main privileges and/or hardships: She has a place to live in and has basic needs. She is able to read and purchase whatever she wants. She has a certain level of freedom. However, she has to constantly work in a tiring manner. She is the lowest rank of a servant in the house, so the other servants order her around and yell at her. She also does not earn a lot of money, and has to constantly struggle to get more money.
Portrait: (find one online and paste it in)
Welcome to the National Museum of History!
New Life in America
Source #1
Interview of my grandma (original answer done in Korean; this is a translated version)
1. What was the turning point in your life?
My immigration to America was the turning point.
2. Can you describe your life in Korea before you immigrated?
Life was hard because my husband’s business failed. He used to work at the American military base, but later he tried to start his own business. However, it didn’t work out. We had four kids and it was hard to find a way to educate them well.
3. What was the deciding factor that made you immigrate to America?
We went because we got invited to go to America by my husband’s sister, who was already an American citizen.
4. Was America all that you expected?
It was better than I expected. There was a lot of food to give the kids and they seemed to adapt well.
5. What were the difficulties in immigration?
In America, there was too much freedom given to children, so I was afraid that the kids would choose the wrong path. My husband and I both had to work, so we were fearful that if given the opportunity, the kids could easily make a bad decision without parental supervision and lack of cultural knowledge.
6. How did you settle in?
We worked. The kind of work that was available for people with language barriers like us didn’t pay very well. So, my husband worked two jobs, one on the weekend and one on the weekdays. I too also had to look for a job and found one in a local restaurant.
7. Do you ever regret going to America?
No, not to this day, I have never regretted going to America.
Brief Description of Source: This particular source is an interview of my grandma. She is the one who went through the immigration and is here to tell about it. Therefore, I deduced that she would be the best person to interview with the most information and unique opinions.
Source Type: An interview can differ on the type depending on who I interviewed. In this case, however, I interviewed my grandmother, so it is a primary source. She took part in the historical event, and the answers came directly from her, with no analyzation or tweaking. It was translated, but the meanings are all the same, so it is a primary source.
Short explanation of the source’s significance to the event: This interview of my grandma shows her perspective on the immigration and all of her true opinions and reflections. Through this, we can get the whole story from her point of view. However, we cannot assume anything, but prove things using the other sources.
Source #2
Inbom Choi, Korean Diaspora in the Making: Its Current Status and Impact on the Korean Economy, PDF
Brief Description of Source: As a detective, I decided that I also needed a source that would give information on the general topic of immigration itself. This is an article describing the Korean Diaspora. Written by Inbom Choi, it is on the subject of Korean immigration. It explains that after the war ended in 1945, many Koreans were in Japan and China. However, in the 1960's, they started immigrating to the America for better opportunities for business and economy. Also, with some prior knowledge of this document, I know that in 1965, there was a change in the immigration laws, so more people went. I also know that people went with reasons of push and pull. Therefore, I think most Koreans were pulled into America in hopes of better economic situations, as stated in the last paragraph.
Source Type: The type of source is a secondary source because it is not specific to my grandmother, but it is a piece of writing done after much analyzation and study of the topic of immigration itself. It is a documentary and a third person with no personal connection with our family was the author.
Short explanation of the source's significance to the event: From this article, I can understand the concept and background of my grandma's time and comprehend her reasons and actions. For example, she immigrated in 1976. More Koreans started to immigrate in the 1960's, so I know that what she did was quite normal under the circumstances and that she just did what she needed to do. Part of the reason why she moved could be because everyone else was also immigrating or that she heard good stories from America.
Source #3
Brief Description of Source: This is a photograph of my grandma's life in Korea. One could assume that the person in the picture is my grandma, but some extra inquiring proved that it was actually her sister in the picture. However, it is my mom on her back and my aunts on the ground. Therefore, this is an accurate description of their lifestyle in Korea before they immigrated. This was taken near their old house in Daegu, Korea.
Source Type: The photograph was always in our house, and the sole photograph that our family has of my mom's childhood. Therefore, this is the only relic from that time period in our family. Therefore, this artifact of my grandma's life is a primary source because although it is not of her it is her possession and her precious memory. This is the picture that I needed as a detective to learn what her lifestyle was like in Korea.
Short explanation of the source's significance to the event: The photograph is significant because it shows their life in Korea before the immigration. Although she wasn't directly in the picture, it shows her family and the atmosphere that they lived in. From this we can see part of the reasons that they immigrated. The number of children she had and the fact that they are in the countryside was part of the reason of why they immigrated in the first place.
Source #4
Brief Description of Source: This source is a picture of my grandma's driver's license in America. As a detective, I wanted to obtain an artifact from each stage of her life, so I looked for something that she had and used in America. This was in her possession and kept with her.
Source Type: As this was in my grandma's possession when I obtained it for this project, this is definitely a primary source. It was a result of her life and her immigration to America. This is an artifact. It was her's during this time period that I am studying right now.
Short explanation of the source’s significance to the event: I picked all of these sources for specific reasons. The driver's license is significant to my grandma's immigration because it shows what she did in America after the immigration. The immigration process does not end with moving to America, but the life afterwards. The driver's license shows that she has been living in America and has everything an American citizen would have. Also, it shows that she settled down in Virginia, which is probably where her sister-in-law lived.
Written recount of the event with direct reference to all of the sources: In 1976, my grandma and her family immigrated to America. In Korea, as said in her interview, they were struggling to get by with a failed business. But I cannot trust just one source. Therefore, I looked at the other sources, and the photograph also supports that fact because judging from the setting, it seems to be in a countryside, and they don't seem to be a wealthy family. Also, trying to educate four kids well was difficult for her, as stated by my grandma in the interview. Therefore, she was invited by her husband's sister to come move to Virginia with her. From this, I as an interpreter, infer that my grandma would not have actually immigrated if her sister-in-law did not invite their family. Without an invitation, it would have been very hard to find a good place with no connection at all. I also infer that her immigration at that time was no accident. Everything was set up perfectly. She was in a time period where many Koreans immigrated as said in the secondary source article and their business in Korea was declining, so she got the invitation at the perfect time. While its true that most Koreans probably immigrated because of a pull factor for a better economy, I choose a different factor. I choose to believe that my grandma immigrated more because of push than because of pull. She was not drawn to America, but pushed from Korea because of the failed business. The invitation came, and she left because this was a better option that staying in Korea. Therefore, my grandma and her family of four young children immigrated to America. She said in the interview that the life was better than she expected and that she did not regret going to America at all. I, as a judge, choose to believe that she was telling the truth because of the length of her time spent there as a resident. Her driver's license is from 2008. From the data, we can interpret that she stayed in America for at least 32 years and raised her children and her grandchildren there. If she didn't believe that it was a good place to live, she would not have allowed her children to raise her grandchildren in America. I chose this event because this is the complete turning point of our family history. But how does this event affect me and my present? In America, her whole family became American citizens, and this immigration completely changed the family nationality from pure Koreans to a Korean-American family. My grandma's decision to immigrate made me who I am. I was born in America, and was raised most of my life there. That is where my language, culture, and traditions came from originally. I am not a single-cultural girl, but a multi-cultured person who has experienced many things in America because of my grandmother's decision.The immigration made me who I am and will continue to sculpt my family history.
Timeline of Family History
Thank you for visiting! Please come again!